Memento
by The King's Soldier
Summary: Skye wears two dog tags around her neck: one for her father and one for Lieutenant Washington. Because heroes, like fathers, deserve to be remembered.


Disclaimer: I own nothing but the dog tags. Unfortunately they're imaginary...

Author's Note: The beginning of this piece has been floating around in my head since the season finale of Terra Nova. I haven't really seen any fics shedding any light on a friendship between Skye and Wash, so I decided to do a small piece of my own. This is also a bit of a homage to the character of Wash. Enjoy!

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**Memento**

Skye Tate is fourteen years old when her father dies. Her mom falls ill less than a month later with the same disease: the dreaded Sincyllic fever. Desperate and terrified, Skye contacts the Sixers and more or less makes a deal with the devil. No one else knows, of course. They all think her mom is dead. Taylor is kind and understanding, and even tells her she can keep her family's house. He doesn't know she sneaks out that very night and tells the Sixers the intended route of the convoy leaving Terra Nova the next day. When she sneaks back into the colony she curled up in a ball on her parents' bed and cries herself to sleep.

An entire month passes before Taylor offers to take her out to Memorial Fields. He seems to be the only one who notices that Skye is taking it hard. She has managed to keep going as best she can, but it's difficult. She's only fourteen. She should be getting into trouble and falling in love with boys, not working a job and trying to keep track of terras. Everyone tries to be good about it, but she's still alone. And it's hard.

She's leaning against the railing of the balcony of the command center waiting for Taylor to finish up some last-minute business when Wash comes up the stairs. But instead of going in, the Lieutenant comes over and leans on the railing beside Skye.

"I hear you and the Commander are going over to Memorial Field," she says conversationally. Skye nods. They stand in silence for a moment, looking out over the plaza at all the people moving about.

"How are you holding up?" Wash asks finally, turning to look at Skye. Skye shrugs. Wash looks back out over the plaza again, and then says quietly, "I know what it's like." Skye looks up curiously, so Wash kept going. "My dad died when I was five. He got killed in a war. A few months later my mom got sick, and then I was on my own."

"What did you do?" Skye asks, a careful vulnerability in her face.

"What they would have wanted," Wash says honestly. "I kept going. It was hard. Very hard. I missed them a lot." She looks over at Skye. "I still do."

"How do you keep going?" Skye asks.

"You keep reminding yourself of the good things," Wash says simply. "Try not to forget anything, not even the bad. Every piece you of them have is precious."

She reaches around her neck and pulls out two sets of dog tags. One is the typical style used by the Terra Nova security detail. The other, however, is a set of metal tags that are several years old, back from the days when digital tags were fairly new and name and rank were still printed on the metal.

"These are mine," Wash says, holding up the modern tags. She lets them drop and holds up the old tags. "And these were my dad's. I got taken away right after my mom died, so I don't have anything of hers anymore. But my dad had a few pictures of the three of us on his. I keep them with me wherever I go."

Skye reaches down and pulls out the chain that hung around her own neck. A pair of modern dog tags hangs from it.

"My dad's," she says softly. "He had pictures of us too."

"Looks like we match," Wash says. She gives Skye a warm smile, and after a moment Skye slowly returns it.

"We'll really match when I get my own," Skye says.

"You want to be a soldier?" Wash asks, looking mildly impressed. Skye nods.

"I want to be like my dad," she admits. Wash nods.

"So did I," she says.

"Wash?" It's Commander Taylor's voice coming from inside the command center.

"Coming, sir!" Wash calls over her shoulder. She turns back to Skye and reaches out to lay a hand on her shoulder. "If you need anything, you let me know."

"Thanks," Skye says. Wash nods.

"Anytime."

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Three years later the whole world goes to pot. Well, maybe not the whole world. But it sure feels like it to Skye. Lucas has brought back an army that has taken over Terra Nova, Taylor and most of his men are stranded in the jungle, and Josh Shannon just had the crap beat out of him. It took a crazy bluff from Elisabeth Shannon and every bit of charm Skye could muster to get him and his father out of the brig. And then the command center goes up in flames a few blocks over, and as the flames rocket upwards into the darkness Skye thinks for just the barest fraction of a second that the world is ending.

Suddenly everything is chaos. People are running and shouting and the Phoenix guards are going for their guns. It takes Skye a moment to realize exactly what has happened. That's the distraction. Right now the Shannons are on their way through the fence and straight to Taylor's men. They're almost safe.

She starts to run in the direction of her home, hoping she can get there before the guards see her. But halfway down the street she looks back and what she sees makes her stumble to a halt. She's just in time to see two guards capturing Wash. Skye's heart nearly stops. Wash is Taylor's right hand, and has long been suspected to be a member of the Terra Nova resistance. Lucas has just about had it with her. Being caught this close to the explosion will put her in serious trouble. Skye turns on her heels and begins to run after them. She has to reach them before Lucas does. She has to make sure he doesn't hurt Wash. If he does, Taylor will never forgive her.

Skye runs as fast as her legs will go. But the street is long and full of people running around in panic, and it takes her far longer than she would like. In the end she has to take a much less direct route that takes her around the smoldering beams of the command center. As she runs around it she can hear Lucas say something, and then Wash responds. She dashes around the final corner-

-just in time to hear the crack of the gun. Skye's jaw drops and she stops so fast it looks like she ran into an invisible wall. Wash's body crumples lifeless to the ground. Skye is too shocked to scream. All she can do is stare in horror as Lucas turns and walks away, leaving the broken body on the ground with a puddle of blood forming around it.

No matter how she tries she can't quite seem to make her brain connect the image before her with the fact that Wash is really dead. It's too much. As she stars at the body she somehow manages to form one coherent thought. Dog tags. She needs to get Wash's dog tags.

After taking a quick look to make sure there's no one around to see her, Skye darts forward from the shadows. She runs across the ground to Wash's body and drops down beside it. The puddle of blood is getting steadily larger. The doctor in Skye wants to do something, anything, but it's already too late. All she can do is reach out and carefully close Wash's eyes. Her body is already getting cold. A sob hitches in Skye's throat and she forces herself to blink back the tears that are filling her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she chokes.

She takes hold of the two sets of dog tags and carefully lifts Wash's head so she can pull them off, getting a bit of blood on them in the process. With her right hand she clutches the dog tags so tightly that her knuckles turn white. She presses the back of her left hand to her mouth for a moment as she looks down at Wash's body, trying to decide what to do. Someone as brave as Wash deserves a real burial. But Skye knows she can't move the body alone, and by the time she gets help Lucas will have sent someone to deal with it. And being seen with the body of a so-called traitor will cost her any influence she might still hold over him. A real burial will have to wait until she's cleaned up the rest of the mess she caused.

So instead Skye pushes herself to her feet, silently promising Wash that once Phoenix is gone she'll have a real burial with full honors. Then she turns and runs in the direction of her home. She refuses to look back.

It isn't until she has reached her house and closed the door behind her and has slid down to the floor and looks down to see the bloody dog tags clutched tightly in her hands that Skye finally breaks down.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

It's the third day after their triumphant return to Terra Nova that Skye finally finds the down time, and the courage, to take out Wash's dog tags from the drawer where she's hidden them. She sits down on her bed and carefully cleans away the blood. It's the first time she's been able to look at them without hearing the gunshot and seeing Wash lying on the ground in her own blood. When she's finished she sets them on her bed and just stares at them for a moment, trying to figure out what to do with them.

Finally she picks up the tags that belonged to Wash's father and activate them. They contain a brief holo-record of his service and of his health, but otherwise the only thing on the tags is a picture of a young man and woman with a smiling little girl between them that vaguely resembles Wash. After studying the picture a moment Skye decides to take the tags out to Memorial Fields. They belong with Wash.

After carefully setting the tags in her pocket she carefully picks up the set of tags that belonged to Wash. For a long moment she just holds them, remembering the beautiful, sassy, and talented Lieutenant they belonged to. Then she actives the tags and a small holo-screen appears.

Skye carefully scrolls through the records, a sort of itinerary of Wash's life. Wash actually spent her entire military career under Taylor. Most of it was in Somalia up until the year Taylor's wife died. After that they were all over the place under finally landing in Terra Nova. Wash has taken her fair share of shots, with her longest hospital stay being right after she was apparently captured by Somalian rebels.

After the records comes a string of pictures. Most of them involve a younger Wash, Taylor, and a small group of people that Skye doesn't recognize. Presumably their unit. There are also, however, a few pictures of Wash and Taylor and a woman and a boy that Skye suddenly realizes with a shock is a young Lucas Taylor. The pictures span through several years of Wash's life. The woman, Taylor's wife, stops appearing after a time, and then the pictures become much fewer and farther apart as far as time is concerned. Eventually they reach Terra Nova. There is one of Wash and Lucas Taylor leaning against a massive dinosaur skull with smiles on their faces. Skye's throat tightens at the thought that the boy who smiled in so many of those pictures is the same person who killed Wash.

The very last picture is of Wash and Reilly and Mark standing in front of a rover. Then an image appears of Wash sitting on a chair in what appears to be the main room of a house. Probably hers. Suddenly the image starts speaking.

"If you're watching this, sir, then it probably means I'm gone."

Skye immediately flicks off the tag. Whatever the video says, it's meant for Taylor alone. She can respect that.

That finally makes up her mind as to what to do with the tags. She reaches up and takes hold of the chain around her own neck, carefully pulling it over her head. It only holds one tag now. Her mother began wearing the other after her return to Terra Nova. Now Skye carefully removes one of Wash's tags from its chain and instead slips it onto the chin with her father's tag. Then she puts it back around her neck. The other will go to Taylor so he can see whatever final words Wash has for him. But this one will remain around Skye's neck beside her father's, a silent reminder of the brave woman who has become a hero to her.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

It's a short walk to the command center, which has been mostly repaired by now. Mark is stationed outside the door, keeping guard over Taylor's office of sorts.

"Is Taylor in there?" Skye asks. Mark nods.

"Yeah," he says. "He asked to be alone for a while."

"I just need to give him something," Skye says. She holds up the lone dog tag on its chain. Mark softens when he sees it. "It'll just take a sec."

"Okay," Mark says. "Just be quick."

"Thanks," Skye says.

She carefully opens the door and steps into Taylor's office of sorts. The afternoon light is only able to reach part of the windows, so the room is slightly dim in a pleasant way. Taylor himself is sitting behind his desk with his elbows on his desk and his chin resting atop them. He looks tired and worn. The last few days have affected him greatly. For a minute Skye pauses and seriously considers just slipping back outside before he notices she's there. Their relationship is still fairly awkward. But then he looks up and her chance at escape is gone.

Skye crosses the room without a word and stops on the other side of his desk. Silently she holds out the chain with the lone dog tag.

"She would want you to have this," she says quietly, daring to look up at his face. He studies her a moment before reaching out and reverently taking the chain. He doesn't have to ask who it belonged to. Every other soldier they buried had their dog tags on their body.

Taylor fingers the tag, lost in thought. Then he seems to realize there's only one. He looks up at the chain hanging around Skye's neck, and for a moment she's afraid that he'll ask for it back. But instead he just nods. Skye nods takes that as her cue to leave and turns to go. She has the door half open when his voice stops her.

"Skye."

She looks over her shoulder to see him still staring at the tag. For a long moment he doesn't look up, trying to decide what to say.

"Thank-you," he says finally. His voice is a little thicker than usual.

Skye gives him a nod. Then Taylor looks back down at the tag and she quietly slips back outside, leaving him to make his way down memory lane alone. She gives Mark a nod that it's done, and he nods gratefully back.

As Skye makes her way down the steps she reaches into her pocket and her fingers close around the pair of dog tags waiting there. The ones that belonged to Wash's father. She can't lay Wash to rest with her parents. But she can make sure that the last remaining piece of them goes to rest with their daughter. It's the least she can do for the woman who gave her life to save the colony.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Two years later almost to the day Skye Tate is once more standing in front of Lieutenant Washington's grave. This time there are two sets of dog tags around her neck. One pair holds a tag belonging to her father and a tag belonging to Lieutenant Washington. The other pair of tags belongs to Skye.

"It's official," she says, jamming her hands into her pockets as she looks down at the cross and plaque marking Wash's grave. "I finished Mr. Shannon's training program. I'm on the security detail now. I mean, it's only part-time for now. I work the other part in the infirmary with Dr. Shannon. My internship's almost over. When I finish I'll be a real field medic. Just like you." A small smile crosses her face as she fingers her new dog tags. "I told you we'd match someday."

For a moment she just stands there, letting the wind blow through her hair as she drinks in the sight of the grass and flowers. The pair of dog tags belonging to Wash's father still hang on the cross, wrapped around the top just above the crosspiece, and they tinkle gently in the breeze.

"I never got to thank you," Skye says finally, looking back up at the cross. "Without you, Taylor might never have blown up the portal. You helped save all of us. Thank-you."

Skye clicks her heels together and gives the marker a smart salute just like her dad showed her when she was young. The same way the other soldiers saluted Wash's coffin the day they buried her out here.

When she lowers her hand Skye turns around and begins to walk back across Memorial Field in the direction of the colony. She has a lot of work to do. There's nothing she can do to bring Wash back. But Skye's going to do everything she can to try to fill her shoes, to make sure that everyone remembers Lieutenant Washington and the life she gave for Terra Nova.

Heroes, like fathers, deserve to be remembered.

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Three quick things. Firstly, the eighth and final chapter of my story "All You Wanted" shows a little bit of Skye visiting Wash's grave for the first time if who want to see that.

Secondly, if you want to know what Wash's message said then you'll have to keep up with my fic "Moments in Time" because one of the final chapters will be Taylor watching the video she left him.

Thirdly, since you're already here please push the blue button down there and leave a review to let me know what you thought. Otherwise I will be forced to send a pack of slashers to hunt you down.

Thanks for reading!


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